As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a
stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.
And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of
the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with
a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you
into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you
face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness
of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.
And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you
into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you
the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them
forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not
enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; Go ye, serve
ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken
unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and
with your idols, For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the
height of Israel, saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of
Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them,
and there will I require your offerings, and the first fruits of
your oblations, with all your holy things. I will accept you with
your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather
you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will
be sanctified in you before the heathen. And ye shall know that I am
the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the
country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your
fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your
doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves
in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye
shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my
name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to
your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God
(verses 33-44).
In this paragraph we read of their future punishment and also of the
mercy which is in store for the believing remnant of the nation in the
future restoration, of which all the prophets of God have spoken. In the
wilderness of people, their dispersion among all the nations of the
world, He will plead with them and bring them under the rod. The rebels
will be purged out from the nation and they shall not enter into the
land of Israel. In verses 40-44 we have a prophecy concerning their true
restoration. They will be accepted, brought back and gathered out from
all the countries and brought into the land of Israel, as God has
promised them. Then the remnant of Israel will remember their ways and
repent of their evil.